The Empty House.
The case begins Tuesday, April 3, 1894.
Why?
STATEMENT OF THE YEAR:
"It was in the spring of the year 1894 that all London was interested, and the fashionable world dismayed, by the murder of the Honourable Ronald Adair under most unusual and inexplicable circumstances."
"It was in the spring of the year 1894 that all London was interested, and the fashionable world dismayed, by the murder of the Honourable Ronald Adair under most unusual and inexplicable circumstances."
THE TIME OF THE WRITING:
"Only now, at the end of nearly ten years, am I allowed to supply those missing links which make up the whole of that remarkable chain."
"... had I not been barred by a positive prohibition from his own lips, which was only withdrawn upon the third of last month."
"Only now, at the end of nearly ten years, am I allowed to supply those missing links which make up the whole of that remarkable chain."
"... had I not been barred by a positive prohibition from his own lips, which was only withdrawn upon the third of last month."
TIME AND DATE OF THE MURDER:
"Yet it was upon this easy-going young aristocrat that death came, in most strange and unexpected form, between the hours of ten and eleven-twenty on the night of March 30, 1894."
"Yet it was upon this easy-going young aristocrat that death came, in most strange and unexpected form, between the hours of ten and eleven-twenty on the night of March 30, 1894."
WATSON TAKES A HAND:
"All day I turned these facts over in my mind . . . . In the evening I strolled across the Park, and found myself about six o’clock at the Oxford Street end of Park Lane."
"All day I turned these facts over in my mind . . . . In the evening I strolled across the Park, and found myself about six o’clock at the Oxford Street end of Park Lane."
HOLMES’S SPEEDY RETURN:
"I spent some months in a research into the coal-tar derivatives, which I conducted in a laboratory at Montpellier, in the south of France. Having concluded this to my satisfaction and learning that only one of my enemies was now left in London, I was about to return when my movements were hastened by the news of this very remarkable Park Lane Mystery, which not only appealed to me by its own merits, but which seemed to offer some most peculiar personal opportunities. I came over at once to London."
"The credit of the execution is due to Monsieur Oscar Meunier, of Grenoble, who spent some days in doing the moulding. It is a bust in wax. The rest I arranged myself during my visit to Baker Street this afternoon."
"I spent some months in a research into the coal-tar derivatives, which I conducted in a laboratory at Montpellier, in the south of France. Having concluded this to my satisfaction and learning that only one of my enemies was now left in London, I was about to return when my movements were hastened by the news of this very remarkable Park Lane Mystery, which not only appealed to me by its own merits, but which seemed to offer some most peculiar personal opportunities. I came over at once to London."
"The credit of the execution is due to Monsieur Oscar Meunier, of Grenoble, who spent some days in doing the moulding. It is a bust in wax. The rest I arranged myself during my visit to Baker Street this afternoon."
THE MONTH OF HOLMES’S REAPPEARANCE:
"Such was the remarkable narrative to which I listened on that April evening . . ."
"Such was the remarkable narrative to which I listened on that April evening . . ."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
April 5, 1894.
April 5, 1894.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
April 3, 1894.
April 3, 1894.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
With such a clear date for the murder that came to be known as the "Park Lane Mystery," finding the beginning of this case seems to hinge on just how quickly Holmes could have found out about the murder and returned to England. As Holmes was planning his return to London, anyway, it’s entirely possible he was in Grenoble picking up the wax bust when word came of the air-gun murder. There was also probably not delay in his receipt of the news, as brother Mycroft had been surely keeping an eye on possible air-gun deaths.
With such a clear date for the murder that came to be known as the "Park Lane Mystery," finding the beginning of this case seems to hinge on just how quickly Holmes could have found out about the murder and returned to England. As Holmes was planning his return to London, anyway, it’s entirely possible he was in Grenoble picking up the wax bust when word came of the air-gun murder. There was also probably not delay in his receipt of the news, as brother Mycroft had been surely keeping an eye on possible air-gun deaths.
Holmes’s progress from London to Switzerland in "The Final Problem" gives us a good yardstick with which to measure a trip back from Grenoble. A day from London to Brussels. A day from Brussels to Strasbourg. Another day could have surely gotten Holmes to Grenoble. The return trip would have therefore been a maximum of three days, and that was certainly a leisurely rate. A traveling Holmes intent on his destination could have made much better time, I’m sure.
The other factor to consider in this matter is the fact that Watson and the street loafers are still interested in the Park Lane Mystery on the day Holmes arrives back in London. The murder occurred on Friday, March 30. Mycroft could have telegraphed Holmes on Saturday, March 31. Even if Holmes was already in travel mode and in Grenoble, he probably couldn’t have begun the trip until late in the day. Travelling on Sunday and Monday, a Tuesday afternoon arrival seems not at all unlikely, and still within the range of days when Watson might still be following the case. That said, I’m going to have to go with Tuesday, April 3, 1894.
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